So am I the only one who thinks that in the first picture for the musical comedy Soul Men, Samuel L. Jackson looks a lot like good old Ordell Robbie? But I guess there are only so many different hairstyles and beards you can try before you start running into some repeats. The first picture for Malcolm D. Little's film has popped up on the official site of music legend and former 'Chef' Isaac Hayes. Hayes, who will appear in the film as himself, stars alongside Jackson, Bernie Mac, Sean Hayes (Will and Grace), and Sharon Leal.

Soul Men centers on two feuding back-up singers named Louis (Jackson) and Floyd (Mac). When their band splits, Louis and Floyd go there separate ways with varying degrees of success. More precisely, Louis robs banks and becomes a convict and Floyd becomes a laundromat baron and retires in style. When the leader of their former band dies, the two men put aside their bad blood and go on a road trip to the Apollo Theater to hold a tribute concert.

When I first blogged about Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac hitting the road together in the new film Soul Men last September, I likened it to A Mighty Wind. Now they're getting one of the film's actors, some Hayes, and a bunch of musicians. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the kooky Jennifer Coolidge and Isaac Hayes have signed on, along with Sean Hayes (that Will & Grace dude, not an Isaac relative). Also joining the mix are musician John Legend, Affion Crockett (Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins), Adam Herschman (Walk Hard), Fatso Fasano (Weeds), and Jackie Long (The Comebacks).

So, Jackson and Mac are former bandmates who have to reunite when their third, who will be played by Legend, passes away. "The pair fight with each other all the way across the country when they're forced to take a road trip together for a reunion concert." Coolidge will play Mac's love interest, Isaac will play himself in what I imagine will be some sort of short stint or cameo, and the other Hayes will take on the typical "obnoxious manager" role. As for the rest, there's no word on who they're playing.

The comedy is currently filming in Shreveport, Memphis, and LA, and producers are hoping to release this in October. So, what say you? Are you ready for a little male Soul?

With the recent brouhaha over Isaac Hayes leaving South Park, maybe it's time to remember his earlier days, when he played live-action characters instead of the animated Chef. Think of early Isaac Hayes and you might think of the theme from Shaft. However, Hayes doesn't actually appear in the 1971 movie for which he composed the Oscar-winning song. His first onscreen role was in the movie Truck Turner, a 1974 blaxploitation picture in which he had the title role. Yes, "Truck Turner" is a name, not a description.

Blaxploitation.com has posted a number of screenshots from this American-International flick, if you want a better idea of the plot. The cast includes Nichelle Nichols, Yaphet Kotto, Scatman Crothers, and the ubiquitous Dick Miller. And it's available on DVD. Perhaps now would be an excellent time to host your own Hayes movie retrospective night, including not only Truck Turner but Three Tough Guys, Escape from New York, and most recently Hustle and Flow. I'd rather think of Hayes as a bad-ass musician than as part of all this Scientology vs. South Park silliness.

Hollywood, Interrupted reports that sources inside Paramount and South Park studios say  the scheduled repeat of one of my fave South Park episodes, "Trapped in the Closet" - the one that satirizes Scientology and has R. Kelly singing to  Tom Cruise to "come out of the closet" - was pulled due to Cruise threatening parent company Viacom. Cruise reportedly threatened to pull advertising for his upcoming film, Mission: Impossible: 3 if the South Park episode was aired. 

In their long history with Comedy Central, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never been censored, not even for their infamous "Bloody Mary episode", but Cruise throws his weight around and suddenly the boys have their mouths duct-taped? Following the news that Scientologist Isaac Hayes, who voiced The Chef on the show, quit because he was offended by the Scientology spoof, this story, if it proves to be true, doesn't really serve to make Hollywood Scientologists look like good sports, eh?